November 18, 2008
Thou shalt not take his middle name in vain
I had always wondered what the "H" stood for. Naively, I assumed it was a Harry S Truman kind of a deal. But I was wrong. The answer? (Drumroll, please.)
Jesus Hussein Christ.
Obviously.
Remember: If you only insult Christians thou shalt get a pass.
Shame I am too late for this year's Infidel Blogger Awards...
Barack Obama is an absolute, to the manor born, bargainer
Desperately hiding from his own subtitle, Shelby Steele grasps for an old fashioned expression for black men who get to live in the manor house. He is perhaps aware that in using it he would blow his cover.
Let us see if I am following his argument correctly:
i - Genial black entertainers who are popular among white people - such as Louis Armstrong - demonstrate white racism.
ii - Confrontational black entertainers who are popular among white people - such as Miles Davis - demonstrate white racism.
iii - Unspecified black entertainers who are not popular among white people demonstrate white racism.
Exit observation: Black academics who are popular among white people - such as Shelby Steele - because they call white people racist are an actual example of white racism.
Noisuf-X: Hit Me Hard
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance. For reals.
Fool me once
The Indians take a pass on the Nerpa.
"The sum of $650-780 million, which Rosoboronexport and the Amur Shipbuilding Plant had negotiated over a long period of time with the Indian Ministry of Defense, will now be found in Russia, either within the state weapons procurement program or somewhere else," the Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted General of the Army Nikolai Makarov as saying.
Now the Indians decide whether to throw good money after bad on the Gorshkov.
Russia suddenly upped the price three years after it signed a $750 million contract for supplying the refurbished Admiral Gorshkov to India. However, the Navy Chief gave enough indication that India's patience with Russia was running thin.
November 17, 2008
P-203 passes at the Conservative policy convention
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The new trailer. Just watching it I can smell popcorn.
Fighting for her rights
It took me a while to get round to watching the Wonder Woman dvd release; several people have told me the show is nowhere near as good as we remember from our childhoods.
Those people are wrong.
Pic related. Is evidence.
Exit observation: A Wonder Woman reboot seems to be in order. Upon reflection, casting the next Amazon is easy.
Lady Sovereign: Random
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
If there is hope, it lies in the proles
Dennis Miller on Sarah Palin's non-neurotic sex life. Surely a cue for Christopher Hitchens to re-read 1984 and re-learn the insights of his idol, George Orwell. Much as I admire Hitchens, it is telling that he should have recoiled in horror at the Governor of Alaska.
Though to be fair, in this he was not alone. Leftist intellectuals fear the working class of the West - with their Walmarts and their love of television and their heart in a heartless world - far more than than they can bring themselves to fear the jihadis.
Update: One spelling correction down the memory hole! (Thanks to Capt H)
Be the change you want to see
Kathy Shaidle delivers a spanking.
Why do I always suspect they are really working for the other side - sort of the opposite of agents provocateur? Agents Collaborateur perhaps?
This issue never would have made it this far if it hadn’t been for “obnoxious/silly/whatever” people like Ezra Levant and other “right wing bloggers”. Who cares what those party hacks tell you they think? They’re probably just unprincipled nobodies who blow with the wind. If they really wanted to change the world they wouldn’t be wasting their lives as Conservative Party delegates. (see: “if you know so much about great careers, how come you’re just a guidance counsellor?”) Party politics is a scam run by con men and kept alive by suckers. The real fight is online and they’re just jealous because they are too sucky to risk their cocktail party invites to join us.
Tom Paine called King George an “ass”, and worse. Yeah, his tone REALLY hurt the American Revolution! I’m sure lots of boring, goody goody people thought so in those days. And who remembers them now? And aren’t you glad they were outnumbered?
(With apologies to at least one past conservative alternate of my acquaintance.)
November 16, 2008
YouTube Pro Tip
If you add "&fmt=18" to the end of the url you do not need to push the "watch in high quality" link.
Compare and contrast: Adora BatBrat making cat ears in and high quality. In the high quality version that cross nail polish just pops.
Don't ask me to explain the scatological humour. I am going with "German" on this one.
November 15, 2008
The essential point
Rex Murphy schools Jennifer Lynch on human rights (via Ezra). RTWT.
Like the right not to wash one's hands while working in a fast-food restaurant, or the alleged right to strip past a certain age, or the right not to be offended by a Mark Steyn article. These "cases" may have merits, and some wild philosopher may articulate those merits. But they do not abide, as rights, on the same plane as freedom of thought, speech and expression. They may be something, but what they are will not be inscribed on any cenotaph: They are not human rights.
Emilie Autumn: Girls just wanna have fun
With a shout out to Agent Bedhead. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
A Goofy Movie
A film by David Lynch. It is a very me soundtrack.
Silver screenage
A first look at the new look original Enterprise with extra styling nacelle action, James Bond's Lotus Esprit - the original Fleamobile - is for sale at auction, and Titus Pullo is potentially awe inspiring as the Punisher.
The nacelles I am fine with, leaving the geometry of the saucer section unchanged to reflect the new nacelles not so much. Pullo should kick ass - or rip out tongue - as the Punisher but the trailer is not doing it for me. The Lotus, by contrast, still rates an unreserved endorsement.
Peter Schiff was right
A bit dry for a Saturday morning but Peter Schiff's analysis is (analyses are) worth your time..
The bad news is that Schiff was right. Ben Stein, not so much
November 14, 2008
Assembler
Do not follow this link.
I am looking at you Damian Brooks. And you Agent C.
It is possible to complete the whole set; I just did. You have been warned (via AoSHQ).
Kaiserschmarrn
Does anyone know where I can find authentic Kaiserschmarrn in Toronto? After watching that Roland Kickinger interview, I have decided this is the breakfast/light lunch/dessert of heroes.
Indirectly related: Chevron over 9000 locked!
Pink Floyd: Welcome to The Machine
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
This is how it started
What do you call students who occupy a university by force and destroy an anti-Nazi exhibit?
Christoph Markschies told The Jerusalem Post that one of the protesters in the lobby of the university said "Damn Israel" when asked by another student to "stop" vandalizing the exhibit "Betrayed and Sold," about the plundering of Jewish businesses under the Nazis.
First Strike
Would you like to play a game?
Here is a thought: For the love of all that is holy let us not allow Iran to have these weapons. Another thought: Congratulations, America. You just passed the Footbal to Barack Obama. I was wrong about both party's nominees, wrong about party affiliation statistics and wrong about the common sense of the American people; basically, wrong about lots of things. Let's all pray I am wrong to be worried now.
Related: Iran now has a concealed launch site and solid fuel missiles capable of hitting Israel with little warning.
Also related: Fallout, when and how to protect yourself against it.
Exit question: At what point do the Jews of Israel decide their government is unwilling or unable to protect them? And will the people of Canada do what they did the last time the Jews needed refuge? Until recently, I would thought both questions to be literally inconceivable. Now that a casual anti-Semitism has become the norm on the left - and the left has the President it wants - it is time to prepare for the worst.
November 13, 2008
Sleeping in light
The Hubble Space Telescope captures the first image of a planet outside the solar system. Le Monde has a helpful diagram to point out the dot in question: the size of Jupiter, Fomalhaut b is twenty-five light years from Earth.
"There is plenty of empty space between Fomalhaut b and the star for other planets to happily reside in stable orbits.
"We'll probably have to wait for the James Webb Space Telescope to give us a clear view of the region closer to the star where a planet could host liquid water on the surface."
The James Webb Space Telescope infrared observatory will be on line by 2013 at the earliest...
Ab urbe condita MMDCCLXI
Google Earth has added a three dimensional simulation of ancient Rome to its interface. Based on the Plastico di Roma Antica, Ancient Rome 3D is a virtual replica of a physical model of more than 6700 buildings.
"It's an incredible opportunity to share the stunning greatness of ancient Rome, a perfect example of how the new technologies can be ideal allies of our history, archaeology and cultural identity," Mr Alemanno said.
Though as a perfect example of texture mapping, sadly, not so much. Still, these stills and video of Google Rome are impressive and I would love to see much more like it. I expect the detail will come in time.
Idle Eyes: Tokyo Rose
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Where is your god now?
Think of Jon Stewart fan, Sharilyn Johnson, as the canary in the coal mine for the mile wide/inch deep popularity of Barack Obama. Having travelled all the way from Toronto (ha) to attend an election night taping, she was turned away at the door due to all the VIPs seated ahead of her.
Priceless.
These men do not care about you, Sharilyn. To them you are nothing. They cannot make your dreams come true.
Imagine the cramped rage of the jihadis. They hack men's heads off but still the message cannot get through for all the fluff in the way.
Most of English would not want to be associated with you lot either
The term British has been banned by Caerphilly council as an "offensive" word.
They used to call this sort of thing sedition.
On point: Kathey Shaidle to the Luftwaffe, "Come back --- you missed some spots!"
Technology transfer and some Indian public relations
The UK lifts ban on nuclear exports to India, the Indian navy sends an armed helicopter with marine commandos to have a word with some pirates and the Russians consider ordering French aircraft carriers. In an ideal world, I would have linked those three ideas in a clever sentence using the navy, nuclear and India as the pertinent tropes. But it was not to be.
More on those carriers.
The linked piece suggests the sale is unlikely due to technology transfer issues with the Americans, though quite what those might be is not spelled out. I would have imagined the British would have a rather larger objection to make.
Related: Taylor & Co. offers a much more detailed account of the INS Tabar's encounter with pirates. I am also pleased to note HMS Cumberland has also been doing what the Royal Navy is supposed to do
November 12, 2008
Mark Steyn responds to John Miller
Yes, John Miller. The John Miller.
(via Kathy)
Crowleyana
Chemical Wedding director, Julian Doyle interviews the son of one time Aleister Crowley devotee, Gerald Yorke. His collection is much more impressive than mine. This one is not safe for work due to racy clips from the film and a severe cheeze factor.
A small but important point for John Yorke: Not a good idea to let the Scientologists know you are in possession of potentially damaging paperwork on LRH. In case anyone is not au fait with the Crowley/Hubbard link, his name was Jack Parsons.
Pic related. Is Marjorie Cameron.
Junkie XL: Beauty Never Fades
So wish this was my track. Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Leave or we will rape you
An Arab human rights lawyer promotes a new means of resistance against the Jews: Rape Israeli women.
Well, I am assuming she is a human rights lawyer. Though for all I know she is a community organizer.
Related: From Bukhari 7.62.126, the words of Mohammed.
Remember when feminists used to oppose genital mutilation, child marriage and stoning women to death for adultery? Also, rape? Good times. These days feminists defend rape, apartheid is called multiculturalism and submission means peace. So hard to keep up. Change is the new black. (Ahem.)
November 11, 2008
You just have to say "no, I won't" one more time than they can say "yes, you will"
We owe them a debt we cannot repay, only honour.
We have work to do.
Ivanova: Why do I get the ugly suspicion that you're volunteering me for this job?
Sheridan: I accept your offer!
Babylon 5, Lines of Communication
Existentially related: Tantor comments at Blackfive.
Stop wailing about what a disaster this is and start arming yourself for the fight to come. Read the Constitution and the Federalist Papers so that you know why the Founding Fathers organized the government the way it is. Arm yourself with arguments for the coming assault on the Bill of Rights. Obama will want to reduce the military, raise taxes, mandate volunteers, ban guns, muzzle talk radio, and super-size the government. These are happy fights which we will win.
While it is alarming to see ignorance in such great numbers and on the march, our ideas are better and will come to be accepted because they work and theirs don't. The coming year will be the intellectual equivalent of Rorke's Drift.
Lest we forget: Gas Shells Bombardment.
Bring history home
The family of Cdr Ted Simmons needs our help to return his medals from England and exhibit them at the CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum.
The Cardigans: Erase and Rewind
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
The millstone of white guilt
Tom Adkins is feeling uppity. Now that white Americans have voted for a black President the Era of White Guilt is over. Now if only someone would mention to the 95% of black Americans who voted for a terrorist protégé that they should consider judging a man by the content of his character, not the colour of his skin.
Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.)? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. To those Eurosnots who forged careers hating America? I'm still waiting for the first black French president.
No more quotas. No more handouts. No more complaining that "the man" is keeping you down. "The man" is now black.
An open letter to President George W. Bush
Dear Mr. President,
Please pardon Conrad Black.
"In Canada, the received wisdom was so stultifying that conforming to it meant mental death. Conrad Black was one of those unusual people who decided early on that he was not going to be afraid and that he was going to live the truth."
- David Frum, quoted in Slate
"I wish there were more people like Conrad Black."
- Baroness Thatcher
"He is a terribly lively guy. He's most extraordinary."
- William F. Buckley, Jr
"It seems to me that what really gets up Canadian noses about Conrad Black is that he is rich (or was, at least, before legal fees drained him) and successful; he is also intelligent and outspoken. Elsewhere, these might be considered attributes and evoke admiration. In Canada they mostly evoke envy."
- Ian Hunter, professor emeritus, faculty of law, University of Western Ontario, National Post
"I wonder if Mr. Black knew how he tapped into that great wide streak of dissatisfaction that runs quiet and deep in many Canadians, the rising weariness with mediocrity and the hunger for excellence."
- Christie Blatchford, Globe and Mail
"Black invested in dozens of Canadian newspapers and magazines, he donated to Canadian causes, he represented Canada abroad and was famous as a Canadian proprietor of numerous international publications. He was the best friend that thousands of British, American and Canadian journalists ever had. And for this they have now turned on him. A biting of the hand that fed them, like some petulant and spoiled child laughing as a parent slips on the ice and is obviously hurt."
- Michael Coren, Toronto Sun
"…I am proud of my association with Hollinger, and I think that those who, throughout the world, hitched a ride on the Hollinger express should be proud as well."
- Martin Newland, The Independent
"Many of the charges are completely ridiculous. They include racketeering -- a charge that was intended to catch Al Capone."
- Andrew Roberts, historian, author Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership
"Conrad Black is innocent. No, I don't know Conrad Black, never met him. No, I have made no examination of the evidence against him. Nor do I need to in order to assert his innocence."
- Ian Hunter
"I'd be happy to appear as a witness for the defence."
- Mark Steyn, Maclean's
"The trial by attrition of Conrad Black has exposed the dark underbelly of the legal system, where the government can ruin a man, take his property, his means of livelihood and make him a social pariah -- all without the hassle of securing a conviction. An iconoclastic mentality has emerged in the legal system that is focused less on securing justice than on bringing down the high and mighty while pandering to the politics of envy."
- Alykhan Velshi, New English Review
Yours,
Nicholas Packwood
(With a hat tip to the Parental Units of the Flea, from whence this very sensible notion. Quotes drawn from the Ad Hoc Committee for Conrad Black)
November 10, 2008
If Barack Obama is assassinated
Some leftist shit will dedicate a book to the assassin's memory. The next generation of progressives will think that is just fine.
Forgive me for not following their logic. I do not revel in misery and human sacrifice after the fashion of these peace loving, anti-war death cultists.
Valerie Jarrett
O Ba Ma's choice to replace him in the United States Senate: Born in Iran.
As spy thrillers go this one is not exactly subtle. Born in Iran, Chicago fixer, ties to the sub-prime mortgage scandal before the roof fell in and she worked with convicted felon and Obama real estate agent Tony Rezko to raise money for The One. Not that the American electorate cares about any of this. One more traitor who has never held elective office hardly makes a difference at this point.
Directly related: God bless Representative Paul Broun.
Update: And Cynthia Dunbar. They are not "black helicopter" Republicans for all that the RINOs and onservatives have decided Bill Ayers is no longer useful to them as a campaign smear. Some of us were actually concerned about his being an enemy of the Constitution. But hey I am in Canada so no harm no foul. Enjoy your republic, if you can keep it.
Sacrilege
Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, known to many of you as Armistice Day. By whatever name it is among the most sacred days of the day as we come together to remember and give thanks for a debt that can never be repaid, only honoured.
It is therefore news to inspire horror and contempt that the Canadian Human Rights Commission is to participate in the wreath laying ceremony tomorrow. By their every action and their every political commitment both stated and implicit, I cannot believe the CHRC comprehends, let alone honours, our glorious dead let alone the men and women serving with honour in Afghanistan, the Persian Gulf and around the world.
Blazing Cat Fur has been following the story - with frequent updates and linked commentary - correctly describing the situation as an insult to our veterans. Once again I am forced to conclude everyone is either asleep at the PMO or they have no clue what a red flag the CHRC and its actions have come to be for Canadian "speechers" (a term the Canadian left intends as an insult, as difficult as this may be for American Flea-readers to believe). Ezra Levant suggests we ask Veterans Affairs Minister, Greg Thompson, what he has to say for himself. Good idea. Be as polite as you can. Or at least as polite as you can be regarding an institution whose staff - civil servants, no less - join neo-Nazi bulletin boards, post racist filth, justify their actions in the name of human rights then target Jews, Christians, the poor and the uneducated for their Star Chamber prosecutions.
Veterans everywhere are particularly encouraged to write. I believe our "Conservative" government should be publicly shamed for this travesty. This is an insult and an embarrassment to Canada.
Kathy Shaidle offers the following press release. Forward it far and wide.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) -- the unaccountable quasi-judicial agency that persecutes writers, publishers, pastors and even stand up comedians on the taxpayers' dime -- are trying to repair their lousy public image...
By insulting our honored dead.
Tomorrow, the CHRC plans to lay a wreath during the National Remembrance Day Ceremony in Ottawa.
According to their press release, the wreath is intended to: "commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights."
Funny, most ordinary Canadians see Remembrance Day as a chance to honor those who fought to preserve our freedoms -- not to commemorate a meaningless scrap of paper issued by a private club for dictators.
The CHRC's publicity stunt is especially galling considering how many Canadian citizens are now under life-time speech bans imposed by these 'human rights' tribunals, merely for exercising their God-given (not UN given) rights of free speech, assembly and worship.
Concerned Canadians should contact their MPs, as well as the Minister of Veteran's Affairs, to find out why this misnamed government agency -- which works to undermine human rights rather than uphold them -- is being allowed to desecrate the memory of Canadian veterans.
Update: Ezra Levant writing for the National Post: Canada's free speech enemies to lay Remembrance Day wreath.
The men whose grave the CHRC will desecrate would simply not have believed that, not seventy years after they died, the Canadian government was the chief source of Nazi propaganda in Canada.
This is not the future my mother warned me about
Terminator Salvation art director, Martin Laing on robot design and the teaser trailer for Terminator IV. Sweet. Though I fear for a repetition of the disappointment that was my trip to Zion in the third Matrix movie (still cannot believe anybody was impressed with those mechs) this film stars Christian Bale as John Connor so will kick ass QED.
There are people who are surprised/offended by this, apparently. I would have thought the name John Connor is a bit of a giveaway.
Also, did they clone Arnold? Roland Kickinger is almost scarily perfect casting. That last link goes to an interview which - aside from a certain unavoidable hilarity factor - is inspirational. Much as Arnold before him, Kickanger turned up in California with nothing and proceeded to conquer Hollywood from there. "There is always a way," he says. Indeed. But unlike so much of Obama's America, Kickanger's way did not involve making himself a burden on the public purse.
Nancy Nova: No No No
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
SS-PA
An important message for my American cousins, particularly to conservatives who - generally speaking - think of themselves as law abiding citizens.
The police are not always your friends.
The important lesson to take away from the linked video is not that freedom of speech will be curtailed in Obama's America (though it most certainly will be) but that it is not the job of the police to protect your civil liberties. It is the job of the police first and foremost to maintain public order; in this case by forestalling a riot and/or a lynching.
This is on balance a far more disturbing situation than at first meets the eye. The police do not represent a danger to liberty because a man is arrested for wearing a McCain/Palin T-shirt, the police represent a danger because a man is arrested for incitement to riot. Watch the video and consider what possible course of action those officers could have taken when confronted with a scene straight out of an H. Rider Haggard nightmare. Short of calling in the National Guard and letting the city burn (both viable options if you ask me but I am not police) the only sane action is the one they took.
The problem, therefore, is twofold. First, if all Obama's stormtroopers need to do to crush dissent is threaten civil disorder then they shall do so again and again. That way lies Weimar Germany. Second, the police really do have to maintain order and to follow the orders they are given. This is the dilemma faced by police forces in any conquered country; abandon your post and defer to the forces of anarchy or keep at your job and become de facto agents of the occupying power. Given the former course presents dangers to their livelihoods, their families and their dispositions, most police will - however reluctantly - choose the second course and enable, however reluctantly, the occupation.
An excellent primer for the coming years is Len Deighton's SS-GB. In this novel it is November 1941 and in Deighton's alternate history Britain has fallen to the enemy. In the real world, it is all too easy to imagine Lord Halifax or the like reaching an accommodation with the Nazis and consequently to imagine Britain's defeat from within, this especially in light of November 2008 (as Osama bin Laden argued, the jihadis could only wound America, only the American left could defeat America).
Churchill anticipated the problem presented by the police in the event of a German occupation and prepared terrible measures for this terrible contingency. In the event of a German occupation, Home Guard commanders who found themselves behind the lines were to open sealed orders. At the top of the list: shoot dead the local chief of police. It had to be done. The police knew too much about the locals and had to be prevented - at any cost - from assisting the Germans.
By the grace of God it never came to that. By the grace of God it never will.
The beclowning of John Miller
A little inside baseball from the freedom of speech trenches (mixing metaphors furiously here). John Miller, writer/consultant/definition-challenged and (inevitably) a professor of journalism at Ryerson University, has a go at Ezra Levant not only for Ezra's version of the Joseph Howe debate but for refusing to post Miller's version at Ezra's blog (the full story at Steynian, Issue 281... scroll down a bit).
Sound familiar? I am going to say this slowly and in words even a five year old journalism professor can follow: Your freedom of speech does not include the right to force Ezra Levant to publish your words. Your freedom of speech means you can publish your words at your own expense at your own "blogsite".*
Where they will go unread. Which is the point. People like this want to appropriate the audience of better writers (and better men) because the mindspace for their mewling drivel is already dominated by the leftstream media and a little de facto internet hijacking - complete with self-linking at Steynian, Issue 278 - is the only advertising they can afford. Miller's complaint reminds me of your garden variety comment troll with the exception that 99% of those have the common sense to hide their names.
I am also reminded of the Muslim law students who argued - on the taxpayer's dime - that their freedom of speech included the freedom to hijack Maclean's cover page and use it as a flying bomb aimed at our most ancient freedom in the name of the very freedom they sought to destroy. Any guesses which side Miller took on that "human right"? Honestly, I do not know (largely because I do not care enough to check). But let's face facts, I am pretty sure I do.
* Whatever the hell a "blogsite" is supposed to be, I assume he means "blog", a contraction of web log. Blogsite, my ass. And this guy is paid for his expert opinion. If he shows up here I will comment ban him on principle.
Update: Deborah Gyapong explains to the journalism prof how to use a search engine. Google it! Again, don't care enough to check, but I am betting this guy has tenure.
Perhaps, being a Chicago crowd, they knew some of the things that 52.5 per cent of America prefers not to know
What if they held a revolution and (a big) nobody came? Peter HItchens comments on the nothing that is Barack Obama.
I am not making this up. No wonder that awful old hack Jesse Jackson sobbed as he watched. How he must wish he, too, could get away with this sort of stuff.
And it was interesting how the President-elect failed to lift his admiring audience by repeated – but rather hesitant – invocations of the brainless slogan he was forced by his minders to adopt against his will – ‘Yes, we can’. They were supposed to thunder ‘Yes, we can!’ back at him, but they just wouldn’t join in. No wonder. Yes we can what exactly?
Exactly.
One ray of light to consider: This infiltrator - this Manchurian Candidate - will not be much use to his Cuban masters or their Weather Underground proxies. There is a roster of Chicago mindworms and the rest of America's professional parasite caste ahead of them in line. I suspect these American cultural Marxists will treat the Stalinist variety (in the form of the Dirección General De Inteligencia) as a speedbump on the way to Starbucks. And I doubt Bill Ayers will allow the revolution to overturn his tenured existence.
As to the man himself, to call him an empty suit is an insult to empty suits. At this point it is impossible to know what he will do beyond the certainty we will hear the refrain, "I am not the Obama I thought I knew." But there is worse yet than him. In the annals of spinelessness some names will be eternal and at their forefront will be the names of onservatives who folded before this nothing - and that goes double for the ones stumbling over their own virtue to insist we respect him in his stolen office. One advantage of my Canadian citizenship is I do not have to pretend this man is my President.
Hillary... attack!
Update: Protein Wisdom on Barack Obama and onservartive self-righteous civility.
There is nothing at all noble about praising a man and a party who reviles you simply because in doing so you appear noble. Jews have tried that. And it’s often ended with skeletons and ash, or the twisted wreckage of a bus in Tel Aviv.
November 09, 2008
It seems that the initial reports that one of our submarines was missing were not completely accurate
More than twenty people have reportedly died aboard a Russian nuclear submarine due to the accidental activation of a fire extinguishing system. While the vessel was reportedly undergoing sea trials in the Pacific, details regarding its name and class have yet to be released.
My question: Was it the Nerpa, set to be the INS Chakra come January 2009? If so, this is a tragedy with strategic implications. The following was published last Saturday: how many nuclear submarines does the Russian fleet have undergoing sea trials out of Vladivostok this week?
The Nerpa was launched at the Komsomolsk on-Amur shipyard in June this year after which she began harbour trials. Earlier this week, the shipyard announced that the submarine had been shifted out of the shipyard to a maintenance facility in the Primorye territory near Vladivostok for trials in the Sea of Japan.
The 12,000 tonne submarine, said to be the quietest and deadliest of Russia's attack submarines, has a crew of 100 personnel is currently being operated by the Russian Navy.
India is set to launch three of its own indigenously built nuclear powered SSBNs. Even if their ostensibly indigenous reactor design is inspired by the Russians, the Indians might consider training with the United States Navy instead.
Better yet, it seems to me some work accidents aboard the PLAN's nuclear fleet are in order. I can always stock up on jelly beans.
Update November 9: It is the Nerpa. The deaths appear to have been caused by the activation of the ship's freon gas fire extinguishing system.
Related: Major Russian submarine accidents since 1991. Also, a BBC graphic illustrating the submarine accident.
November 08, 2008
The Third Seal
A comment at Agent Bedhead at the news Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow may leave London and return to the United States.
Shiver me timbers
Every few months a thoughtful Flea-readers sends me a link to Kylie's Agent Provocateur mechanical bull ad. I appreciate the gesture every time. Now I am delighted to pass on the news Helena Christensen is following in Kylie's... let us say... footsteps with the new Agent Provocateur Pirates campaign.
That last link? Choose your own adventure. And so not safe for work.
Even less safe for work? Agent Provocateur's Season of the Witch ad and Witches lingerie.
PG-13 but arguably far hotter: Heidi Klum and her body double interpret Risky Business.
Crystal Castles: Crimewave
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Youts
I have already heard enough about the supposed youth vote to last a lifetime and we are going to be exposed to more teeth-grinding analysis than I can bear these coming four years, much of it flat wrong. No, libertarianism is not the answer. What the Republicans need to gain the ingrate vote is a non-threatening, apparently cool top of the ticket. Obama had that (forgive me for I know not what I do) in spades while (for reasons which escape me) Sarah Palin alarms - outrages - many young people.
Sadly, I think the best counter to Obama would have been Mike Huckabee. A friend of mine who fits the target demographic has told me several times over the last year - again as recently as last week - that Huckabee was the only candidate in either party that "did not creep me right out". This with no apparent cognisance or concern for any issue of the day; not abortion, not the status of marriage, not even the war let alone the arcana of taxation and investment policy, not nada.
The best barometer for Republican success has nothing to do with the RNC, the Republican Congressional caucus, talk radio or the majesty of the dextrosphere; it is a winning appearance on The Daily Show. Don't ask me who to back as "the next Reagan", ask Jon Stewart.
But then I think the West can do without the ingrate vote. The more apathetic the soft headed masses are the better. The people should be actively discouraged from voting and the process left to whatever percentage of the population is actually paying attention and - not to put too fine a point on it - actually paying the bills. Convicted felons, the incarcerated, anyone receiving public assistance (including students) and a range of other people should be denied the franchise either permanently or until they can demonstrate some rudimentary degree of social responsibility.
November 07, 2008
Correct me if I am wrong here
But if soon to be President Obama institutes his mandatory Obama Jugend are all those Daily Show viewers going to be rethinking their vote?
Hey, I was wrong about the polls, wrong about turn out and wrong about Democrat party affiliation (a seven point advantage, who knew?) and I could be wrong about this too. They do say Freedom is Slavery.
As to Obama's Canadian fans in the labour movement repeat after me: George Bush was my best friend. Cross your fingers Obama was lying about this too. Perhaps he will save you until last.
Update: Shame the United States does not have an independent news media. I expect quite a few students might have been interested to learn what Senator Obama had planned for them before the Office of the President Elect changed its mind. Though I am heartened to see the spotlight provided by a few blogs is sufficient to send the Obamination scurrying for cover I expect there are a few key bloggers who should expect some Chicago rules headed their way.
What part of Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn don't you understand?
This Cthulhu shop is the best thing I have seen all week. Though, in fairness to this diagnosis* of my foaming at the mouth, if O Ba Ma was a mythos entity I might have come to a different conclusion. A sane man would hope to gain favour and be eaten first.
But by all means leftists, carry on your secular attempt to undermine civilization. If you grow beards your new masters may not think you important enough to bother with.
* Think hard before clicking. The author of the linked piece brags that if he had come across John McCain downed in Vietnam he would have shot him on the spot. It is almost as if he is not anti-war but on the other side... Remember: It is not hate speech if the left does it.
Try to be Ugly
The combination of these things combined with a life spent outside had their effect on Ugly. To start with, he had only one eye, and where the other should have been was a gaping hole. He was also missing his ear on the same side, his left foot has appeared to have been badly broken at one time, and had healed at an unnatural angle, making him look like he was always turning the corner. His tail has long since been lost, leaving only the smallest stub, which he would constantly jerk and twitch.
Ugly would have been a dark gray tabby striped/type, except for the sores covering his head, neck, even his shoulders with thick, yellowing scabs. Every time someone saw Ugly there was the same reaction. ´That’s one UGLY cat!!´
All the children were warned not to touch him, the adults threw rocks at him, hosed him down, squirted him when he tried to come in their homes, or shut his paws in the door when he would not leave.
Ugly always had the same reaction. If you turned on the hose on him, he would stand there, getting soaked until you gave up and quit. If you threw things at him, he would curl his lanky body around feet in forgiveness. Whenever he spied children, he would come running meowing frantically and bump his head against their hands, begging for their love. If you ever picked him up he would immediately begin suckling your shirt, earrings, whatever he could find.
One day Ugly shared his love with the neighbor’s huskies. They did not respond kindly and Ugly was badly mauled. From my apartment I could hear his screams, and I tried to rush to his aid. By the time I got to where he was laying, it was apparent Ugly´s sad life was almost at an end.
Ugly lay in a wet circle, his back legs and lower back twisted grossly out of shape, a gaping tear in the white strip of fur that ran down his front. As I picked him up and tried to carry him home I could hear him wheezing and gasping, and could feel him struggling. I must be hurting him terribly I thought.
Then I felt a familiar tugging, sucking sensation on my ear. Ugly, in so much pain, suffering and obviously dying was trying to suckle my ear. I pulled him closer to me, and he bumped the palm of my hand with his head, then he turned his one golden eye towards me, and I could hear the distinct sound of purring. Even in the greatest pain, that ugly battled-scarred cat was asking only for a little affection, perhaps some compassion.
At that moment I thought Ugly was the most beautiful, loving creature I had ever seen. Never once did he try to bite or scratch me, or even try to get away from me, or struggle in any way. Ugly just looked up at me completely trusting in me to relieve his pain.
Ugly died in my arms before I could get inside, but I sat and held him for a long time afterwards, thinking about how one scarred, deformed little stray could so alter my opinion about what it means to have true pureness of spirit, to love so totally and truly.
Many people want to be richer, more successful, well liked, beautiful, but for me, I will always try to be Ugly.
There are two kinds of people
I am not much for the wilderness but the view from Governor Palin's office window is spectacular. Even so, it is nothing next to the love she so obviously inspires in friends, family and co-workers. There are people who will find this picture of her "Welcome Home" banner heart-warming and there are people who will find it déclassé.
Those second kind of people? I envy nothing they think they have.
Cliff Richard: Carrie
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Taliban make strategic error
The first Gurkha has been killed in Afghanistan. One almost feels sorry for the Taliban at what they are going to face now.
Rifleman Rai, from the 2nd Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles, was killed in the Musa Qala area of Helmand province.
EnCana pipeline targeted again
Meanwhile, in the rest of existence: Someone is targeting Canadian oil pipelines. EnCana's infrastructure in northeastern British Columbia has been hit three times... in October. No matter which group of the usual suspects, it seems likely they are bringing war under a green banner.
British Columbia Energy Minister, Richard Neufeld had some insensitive (and probably racist) things to say by way of reply.
"We just have to catch the nut case that's out there thinking they're probably making a statement by doing these kind of things," said Neufeld moments before attending a meeting of the B.C. cabinet in Victoria. "That's what we have to do."
He said there are differences of opinion about the oil and gas industry in B.C. but any person who believes that blowing up pipelines will build support is not thinking properly.
"Only a crazy person can go out there and think that by blowing up something that they are getting their message across. Only somebody that's actually deranged does that kind of thing, because they put everybody's lives at risk," said Neufeld, who himself hails from the area.
He is mistaken, of course. If government, media and academic establishments spend years making apologies for a religion of peace engaged in mass mayhem - and send people to a human rights commission for reporting the news of said mayhem - sooner or later other people are going to get the idea their message of caring can best be conveyed in the same medium. I will not be surprised at the first environmentalist protest video where some unlucky soul is beheaded in the name of Gaia.
Or the BC government can write off the bombings as native protest/hijinx/cri de coeur. In which case nothing to see here. Move along.
November 06, 2008
Preventing the suicide of civilization
Melanie Phillips speaks. Are you listening, Mr. Harper? I have voted Liberal before and I will do it again if it means I will at least know who to throw the rocks at. I would much prefer a principled conservative opposition to a Conservative party in power on the strength of its own nullity.
The British Conservatives think that, to regain power, they have to show they have broken with cultural conservatism and go instead with the way society has changed — gay rights, green politics, anti-racism. What they have failed to grasp is that such change has turned values such as right and wrong, good and bad on their heads and has produced a sentimentalised, cruel, oppressive and perverse society — one where burglars go scot-free but householders are prosecuted for putting the wrong kind of garbage in the trash can, and where people are too frightened to protest at the erosion of British, Christian, or Western values because of the opprobrium that will follow.
The Conservatives don’t realize that by embracing such “change” they are endorsing a kind of enslavement. They don’t realize that the first duty of a conservative is to conserve that which is precious and protect it against attack. The result is that millions feel betrayed and abandoned by the absence of conservatism, and yet more still think the Conservative party is just a bunch of opportunists who don’t have any principles. Why vote for the progressive wannabes, after all, when you can have the real thing?
We don't have to understand them. We just have to stop them.
Spooks (MI5) season 7 is off to an extraordinarily promising start. Three episodes in and nothing blamed on the CIA, Mossad or global warmening. The villians? Russian and Pakistani intelligence services and - wait for it - Muslim suicide bombers. Somewhere I hear the quiet sound of a worm turning.
Pic related. Is Ros Myers (Hermione Norris), the hardest character on television.
Update: Bit of a cheat updating before posting but have now seen S07E04 and things have taken a turn for the silly. Apparently, al Qaeda's aims are "justice for Palestine" an end to the corrupt government of Saudi Arabia and America out of the Middle East; the same aims as the Guardian editorial board, in other words. Actually scratch that, this is BBC One. I meant the Independent's editorial board.
Also, it turns out al Qaeda field operatives are second rate Bond villains in off Bond Street tailoring. Even so, Spook's writers managed not to blame the Americans and that is still a great leap forward for UK state television.
Goths
These are proper Goths. Most kids these days are doing it wrong (and I can't be asked explaining it to them, if I'm honest).
Fischerspooner: All we are
Now is the time at the Flea when we dance.
Seething
Quite a bit more to say about this farce of an election and the prospect of President Nothing. My current dominant emotional state: Generalized contempt. More as my blood returns to a semi-liquid liquid state. I think it is a plasma just now so it could take some time.
Related: The Invisible Man.
I had been thinking something along these lines. If Bill Ayers is not the dimwit I suspect him to be, he is being very careful to stay in the public eye. If the incoming President is the sociopath I suspect him to be, there are all sorts of former friends and mentors about to find themselves surplus to requirements. It is going to get sticky for everybody but inevitably it is the old guard revolutionaries who are first against the wall. Which is what we call a silver lining.
Uplifting: The Infidel Blogger Awards, now accepting nominations.
Also, Melanie Phillips.
The reaction of conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic to this undoubted change – not just in the US but in Britain too – shows the intellectual disarray caused by these profound developments. They say politicians must stop trying to hold the cultural line and go instead with the flow of change. In Britain, the Tory party has adopted this strategy. Now there are Republicans saying the same thing.
Which is, of course, doing it wrong. The Provisional VRWC needs to purge the onservatives, identify core objectives and figure out how to start a long march of our own. Those institutions are not going to retake themselves.
November 05, 2008
A triumph for the mobility
No Angst Zone makes a rather obvious point that rather desperately needs making. This is not an historic day for black Americans; this is an historic day for transnational Americans. Though most of black America has yet to notice, it will.
The day we elect a person who grew up in a small town in Mississippi (or Alabama, or Louisiana, or Georgia), who attended a small state college, and who can trace their lineage back to a sharecropper and, before that, a slave, THAT will be a historic day for America.
Remember. Remember.
The Jawas: So this is how liberty dies.
Five Feet of Fury: The long march through the institutions.
This really is how Rome fell, btw. The mob of Rome decided not to work for several hundred years and, being completely isolated from reality by the Legions and the slaves, demanded foreign and domestic policies that bought bread and circuses at the price of the stability and security of the empire. The Roman aristocracy and Equestrian lawyer class have their share of the blame, of course. Pandering to the mob for political advantage while posturing in the togas earned by illustrious ancestors was no barrier to reality for all the fine speeches. I expect the party went on even as the Forum went up in flames.
I am beginning to think the jihadis may be our only saviours. Think of it as a bitch slap to the face of civilization. If it was not Muslim religious fanatics now it would be mobilized Scientology or some equivalent, moronic fantasy fifty years from now. Such is the small comfort offered by a conservative disposition; human nature being what it is, this may very well be the best of all possible worlds. We were going to have to defeat the Frankfurt School eventually. Now is as good a time as any.
The Astute Bloggers: Now the United States has proven it is not "racist" it is time to end affirmative action.
Update: Thank God.
Also, as predicted, we cannot blame the youth vote. Hope and Change appears to have shifted it from 17% in 2004 to 18% in 2008. Of course, in 2008 they got to vote several times in several states...
November 04, 2008
Ringwraith speaks
In his first reported interview since the Democratic primaries got underway (strangely, he never replied to my interview request), Barack Hussein Obama mentor, Bill Ayers claims he and his young apprentice have been treated unfairly.
It is possible I edited the preceding quotation for accuracy.
Something that gives me hope: After Ayers claim two death threats had been made on his person.
Amen.
